Worst condition keeps tourists away from ‘Mini-Gulmarg’
Poor connectivity responsible for lack of amenities too
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 30: Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is expecting Rs 40 crore financial assistance from Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) for improving the condition of Patnitop-Sanasar road as the prevailing situation is keeping the tourists away from the destination, which otherwise is being promoted as “Mini-Gulmarg” by the Tourism Department.
The most exciting feature of the beautiful resort of Sanasar situated 19 kilometers west of patnitop is a sprawling cup shaped meadow surrounded by gigantic conifers. Owing to the awe-inspiring natural environment of forests and meadows, Sanasar is best suited for paragliding, parasailing and hot-air ballooning.
It is promoted as ‘Mini-Gulmarg’ by the Department of Tourism as it has Gulmarg like qualities-it is at a moderate elevation allowing both summer and winter adventurous activities. Because of its enchanting beauty, Sanasar is preferred choice for all those tourists who visit Patnitop.
The Directorate of Tourism Jammu is constantly making efforts to ensure that large number of tourists visits Sanasar. However, because of pitiable condition of the Patnitop-Sanasar road only 50% to 60% tourists reaching Patnitop prefer to visit Sanasar. The maintenance of first 10 kilometer falls in the domain of BRO and remaining is the responsibility of Roads and Buildings Department of the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
While BRO maintains first 10 kilometers strictly as per the requirement of the Army, only patch work is done on the remaining stretch by the R&B Department, which otherwise suffers damages with just one spell of heavy rain thereby creating immense difficulties for the tourists. Even the BRO maintained stretch is not perfect for small vehicles and is suitable only for heavy vehicles.
Several years back the Roads and Buildings Department prepared a Detailed Project Report (DPR) whereby concreting of the road instead of blacktopping was proposed at a cost of Rs 27.27 crore but source of funding could not be identified as such the DPR remained confined to the papers only, official sources told EXCELSIOR,.
Now, the Roads and Buildings Department has again prepared a DPR for concreting of 9 kilometers stretch at the cost of Rs 40 crore and submitted the same to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), they said, adding “the Administrative Secretary of the department is vigorously following the project in the Ministry so that sanction is accorded as early as possible”.
An officer looking after the activities of the Tourism Department in Sanasar said, on the condition of anonymity, that majority of the tourists return after travelling few kilometers on Sanasar road just because of its poor condition.
“We are conducting so many activities during summer months to attract tourists in large number but tourism promotion is directly linked with better road connectivity”, he further said, adding “all the tourists reaching Patnitop will prefer to visit Mini-Gulmarg only when there is proper road connectivity”.
He admitted that it was due to poor road connectivity that even proper amenities have not come up at Sanasar and along the road leading to this destination. “We have also heard that R&B Department has approached MoRTH for concreting the road and hopefully the project gets approval shortly”, the officer said.
Some local tourists, who visited Sanasar, told EXCELSIOR that travelling on this stretch particularly last nine kilometers is a daunting task. “How can the efforts of Tourism Department will yield the positive results in the absence of properly maintained road”, they asked and demanded that Roads and Buildings Department should fill the potholes as a temporary measure on regular basis so as to provide some sort of comfort to the travelers.
An officer of the R&B Department, when contacted, confirmed that they were eying Rs 40 crore financial assistance from MoRTH for construction of nine kilometers stretch. “In the meanwhile, we have floated tenders for routine maintenance of the road”, he added.
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